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Boston Bruins: The key to winning this series isn’t to do it at even-strength

By Scott Edwards

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - MAY 27: The Boston Bruins celebrate an empty net goal scored by Brad Marchand #63 during the third period of Game One of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals against the St. Louis Blues at TD Garden on May 27, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Bruins won the game 4-2. (Photo by Scott Rovak/NHLI via Getty Images)
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - MAY 27: The Boston Bruins celebrate an empty net goal scored by Brad Marchand #63 during the third period of Game One of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals against the St. Louis Blues at TD Garden on May 27, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Bruins won the game 4-2. (Photo by Scott Rovak/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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To this point in the playoffs, the Boston Bruins power play has remained the most important aspect of their team’s playoff success not named Tuukka Rask.

With that said, it remains important that the Boston Bruins continue to capitalize on both the power play and penalty kill as special teams remains the spine of success in the playoffs.

The Boston Bruins have produced 18 power play goals to his point. That is six more than the next best team in the playoffs, which is the St. Louis Blues. With a 32.7% of success rate on the power play it remains to be the back breaker for their opponents.

In Game 1, that proved to be the truth once again when St. Louis committed five penalties. Giving the Bruins that many opportunities proved to destroy the Blues, as Charlie McAvoy scored on the fourth chance and the Boston Bruins finally got back into the swing of things with that.

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Special teams have always been an important part of successful playoff teams. The Bruins ability to trust not just the first line on the power play, but as well as their second led by David Krejci and Marcus Johansson, has allowed them to always be fresh and create opportunities.

Not many teams can trust both lines as they particularly stack their top line with all the gifted scorers they have employed. The ability of the Boston Bruins to be unique and dominant on their power play has got them to the point of being the best in the playoffs as a team overall.

The power play proves to be the pinnacle of success for the Boston Bruins, as the Blues have proven to be incredible on the even strength. However, the Blues have also proven to be an quite impressive on the power play as well, which means that the penalty kill for the Bruins may be just as important.

Success on the penalty kill has improved for the Bruins in a huge way when the playoffs came around. In the regular season, they had a 79.9% success rate, good for 16th in the NHL, but now sit at 86.8%, fourth in the playoffs. An improvement of 6.9% is something the Bruins need to continue against the Blues’ talented wingers like Vladimir Tarasenko, who has already shown his ability to score so far.

With Game 2 tonight, it becomes important for the Bruins to go up 2-0 before heading to St. Louis. Game 1 was important, but a loss tonight could completely tilt the series in the Blues favor.

Next. Prospect Jakub Lauko brings home the silverware. dark

This team clearly has what it takes to win the Stanley Cup, but they must remain strong on both aspects of the special teams to win the Cup when it is all said and done.

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